In less than one week, Conversation Agent will be 3 years old. This has been a very interesting ride - and quite a commitment. On the onset, I promised I'd post every day but Saturday. 945 posts later, I know I kept that promise and some.
That some is the 105 posts at Fast Company expert blog, including what was probably one of the first posts about Dell changing its business model thanks to social media, the 26 post at MarketingProfs Daily Fix, the 33 post at The Blog Herald, the 12 posts at Marketing 2.0, and the contributions at Social Media Today, articles and interviews. But who's counting, right? In case you are, that's 1,121 posts for an average word count of 700 (to stay on the low side, you know I write longer) - 784,700 words.
Many made sense better with your comments. This post is not about me, it's about you. A while back I ran a whole series of posts on connections - how to make them, and stories of ideas and people that connected with me.
Because so many have been quite incredulous as to the value of spending time on Twitter, instead of writing a tutorial on how to do that effectively - Twitter is a tool of the moment - I thought it would be more interesting to help tell the story through yours.
Did you make connections on Twitter? Did the connection lead to a friendship, project, career opportunity, meaningful and purposeful new something? Share your story with me and I will package it in a commemorative eBook you'll be able to share with others.
#twittertales - how it's going to work
You write a short post - 500-850 words describing how a connection you made on Twitter, first, lead you to an opportunity and opened new horizons. As a way of guiding your post structure - and to provide a useful guide for those who will be benefiting from the eBook - you may think about how you'd want to read:
- what was interesting and memorable about the connection? For example, was it immediate, did it take time?
- how have you decided to offer the other an opportunity?
- how can other people make connections easier? How can they overcome skepticism or fear?
- what is the ongoing outcome of that connection? Yes, tell me what's happening now or as you're planning it. That's where we can help.
Stay practical and passionate in your story. Use examples and frame a context so that others may learn to listen for similar kinds of opportunities. Concrete and vivid works very well.
You may post your story here in the comments if you don't have a blog, or post at your blog tagging it #twittertales. Leave the link here in the comments and on Twitter (given the recent reliability issues, I would do both).
When you leave the comment or post, include a brief bio for yourself and that of the person you connected with at the bottom. Include a blog URL or Twitter handle. If you comment here, the blog URL will be in the link, so just the Twitter handle.
There will be a cap of 20 stories for the eBook, so share yours early to have a chance to participate. It's my blog anniversary and this is your gift to me. Who wants to go first with their story?
[image by Luca Sartoni]